Sr. Staff Software Engineer — Observability, Insights & Governance

Databricks Inc.; Mountain View (CA); On-site; USD 229,000 - 314,000; Full time

Job summary

Databricks seeks a senior technical leader to drive strategy and execution across Query Observability, SQL Warehouse Management, and Account-Level Observability and Governance. You will define long-term architecture, mentor engineers, and partner with SQL, Unity Catalog, AI, security, and platform teams to deliver scalable visibility across data and control planes.

You will champion reliable software practices, lead high-impact projects, and help admins manage large multi-tenant environments

Qualifications

• 12+ years building and operating large-scale distributed systems, observability or governance platforms, databases, or backend infrastructure.
• Proven track record as a technical leader on teams in multi-stakeholder environments, delivering long-term architecture with incremental impact.
• Strong fundamentals in algorithms and systems design applied to high-throughput problems.
• BS in Computer Science; MS/PhD a plus; bonus for LLM-based agentic experiences.

Responsibilities

• Set the durable technical direction across query observability, warehouse management, and account-level governance.
• Design and lead high-impact projects to improve performance, reliability, and cost transparency for customers.
• Build agentic observability and governance experiences across query, warehouse, workspace, and account.
• Collaborate with Databricks SQL, Unity Catalog, AI, security, and platform teams to integrate visibility end-to-end.
• Mentor senior engineers, establish technical standards, and recruit top talent for observability and governance.
• Ensure reliable software and operational practices for surfaces used by thousands of customers.

Skills

Distributed systems

Observability

Leadership

Cross-functional collaboration

Algorithms & data structures

Education

BS in Computer Science

MS/PhD a plus

Tools

Telemetry pipelines

Query engines

Logging systems

Time-series storage

Job description

RDQ126R35

At Databricks, observability and governance are what turn a massive, multi-tenant data and AI platform into one customers can trust at scale. We are looking for a senior technical leader to drive strategy and execution across three closely related teams at the heart of that mission: Query Observability, SQL Warehouse Management, and Account-Level Observability and Governance.

Query Observability builds the performance and observability tooling, ingesting very large volumes of query telemetry and turning it into history views, execution plans, performance insights, and recommendations that help customers run workloads reliably at scale. Beyond query observability, you will be responsible for building observability and actionable insights at compute level, workspace level, and account level so that admins can confidently manage large accounts.

This is a new technical leadership role responsible for setting the durable architecture across all these surfaces, raising the engineering bar of the combined team, and shaping the next generation of agentic experiences that let users — and the systems they run on — investigate, diagnose, and act on insights across query, warehouse, workspace, and account levels.

The Impact You Will Have

• Establish the long-term technical direction across query observability, warehouse management, and account-level governance, and own the multi-year architecture all three surfaces are built on.
• Design and lead high-impact projects that move the needle on performance, reliability, and cost transparency for customers.
• Build the next generation of agentic observability and governance — extensible experiences that let users and automated agents investigate, diagnose, and act on telemetry across query, warehouse, and account.
• Partner deeply with Databricks SQL, Unity Catalog, AI, security, and platform teams to integrate end-to-end visibility and governance across the data plane and control plane.
• Mentor senior engineers, set the technical standards across the group, and recruit top talent into observability, insights, and governance.
• Champion reliable, high-quality software and the operational practices that let a focused team confidently support product surfaces used by tens of thousands of customers.

What We Look For

• 12+ years building and operating large-scale distributed systems, observability or governance platforms, databases, or backend infrastructure.
• A proven track record as a technical leader on teams operating in complex, multi-stakeholder environments — driving long‑term architecture while still delivering incremental customer impact.
• Deep computer science fundamentals (algorithms, data structures, systems design) applied to real-world, high-throughput problems.
• Experience with one or more of: observability and telemetry pipelines, query engines and query analytics, distributed tracing and metrics, time-series storage, data governance, or large-scale logging systems.
• Strong cross-functional communication skills — able to align engineering, product, and infrastructure partners across multiple teams on technical strategy and trade-offs.
• BS in Computer Science or equivalent practical experience (MS/PhD a plus).
• Bonus: experience building agentic experiences using LLMs .

Pay Range Transparency

Databricks is committed to fair and equitable compensation practices. The pay range(s) for this role is listed below and represents the expected salary range for non-commissionable roles or on-target earnings for commissionable roles. Actual compensation packages are based on several factors that are unique to each candidate, including but not limited to job-related skills, depth of experience, relevant certifications and training, and specific work location. Based on the factors above, Databricks anticipates utilizing the full width of the range. The total compensation package for this position may also include eligibility for annual performance bonus, equity, and the benefits listed above. For more information regarding which range your location is in visit our page here.

Zone 1 Pay Range

$228,600—$314,250 USD

About Databricks

Databricks is the Data and AI company. More than 20,000 organizations worldwide — including adidas, AT&T, Bayer, Block, Mastercard, Rivian, Unilever, and 70% of the Fortune 500 — rely on the Databricks Data + AI Platform to build and scale data and AI apps, analytics and agents. Headquartered in San Francisco with 30+ offices around the globe, Databricks offers a unified platform that includes Genie, Lakebase, Agent Bricks, Lakeflow, Lakehouse, and Unity Catalog. To learn more, follow Databricks on LinkedIn, X, YouTube, and Instagram.

Benefits

At Databricks, we strive to provide comprehensive benefits and perks that meet the needs of all of our employees. For specific details on the benefits offered in your region click here.

Our Commitment to Diversity and Inclusion

At Databricks, we are committed to fostering a diverse and inclusive culture where everyone can excel. We take great care to ensure that our hiring practices are inclusive and meet equal employment opportunity standards. Individuals looking for employment at Databricks are considered without regard to age, color, disability, ethnicity, family or marital status, gender identity or expression, language, national origin, physical and mental ability, political affiliation, race, religion, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, veteran status, and other protected characteristics.

Compliance

If access to export-controlled technology or source code is required for performance ofjob duties, it is within Employer's discretion whether to apply for a U.S. government license for such positions, and Employer may decline to proceed with an applicant on this basis alone.